Excelsior
by PuppeteerOllie
Summary: Hiccup has been in a mental hospital for eight months after a major incident and he's finally going home. Follow along as he finds his path to Excelsior...A retelling of David O Russell's film Silver Linings Playbook. Rated T for Coarse Language and Mature Themes. Modern AU
1. Prologue

**HEY GANG. Thought I'd try something different on top of my main fic Release Your Problems (check that one out if you haven't!). This story will basically follow the plot of David O. Russell's film Silver Linings Playbook (great film if you haven't seen it), but with the characters we know and love. That being said, LET'S GET IT!**

* * *

For perhaps the 100th day in a row, it was gloomy outside. Baltimore's weather system had really put a dampener on our spirits lately, but I was doing my best to shut out the...well, _out._ I was sitting at my desk in my room, going over the letter I had been working on for ages. It sounded pretty good in my head, but I had to do one final check. I unscrewed the lid of my mayo jar, drank the tap water it contained, and cleared my throat.

"I love Sundays," I began. "I live for Sundays; the whole family's together, my mother makes salmon kebabs, dad puts on his jersey and we all watch the game...Yes, it drove me crazy and I know that I was really negative about it, but you don't know that I loved it, Heather, and I did; I just didn't appreciate it or _you_ before-" _Knock knock knock!_

"Come on!" an orderly called out from behind my bedroom door. "Time to go!" I ignored him and kept reading.

"But I lost all that...I blew it - but you blew it, too - but that doesn't matter because we're gonna get this back. We're gonna make this better. I'm doing a lot better now, and I hope you are, too. I'm gonna appreciate-" _KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK!_

"I'll be there in a minute, okay?" I snapped at the door.

"The doctor's waiting! Let's go!"

"I'll be there in a minute!" I shook my head in annoyance and looked at the final line I wrote last night before I had to go to sleep. "That's true love."

I got up out of my chair, did a stretch and pulled my grey hoodie over my head. Before I turned to leave my room, I ran my fingers across a piece of paper I had taped to the wall above my desk. My new motto, written in my legible but slightly messy handwriting.

 **EXCELSIOR**

"Excelsior."

* * *

First things first. Every morning you had to report to the Pill Parade and wait in the long line for your medication before you went anywhere else. When it was my turn, the nurse at the window gave me two small paper cups; one had water in it and the other contained a single Lithium pill. _Ugh, great. Why am I even still on this? I've been doing really well!_

"You know the drill, Henry," the nurse said. I nodded, popped the pill into my mouth, and took a large gulp of water. "Okay, show me?" the nurse asked. I opened my mouth and said "ahhhhhhhh", proving that I had swallowed the pill."Alright, very good. You can go now." I smiled at her in thanks and continued down the hall towards the cafeteria. On my way though, I wriggled the Lithium pill out of it's hiding place under my tongue, and spat it out onto the hallway floor.

* * *

Breakfast was over and done with pretty quickly and I had to go to Group Therapy, which basically consisted of me and a few other fellow nutcases talking about our feelings and how we've been progressing over the course of our stay in the hospital. When I entered the room, I was surprised at how many people there were inside. _Are some of these guys new? There must be a dozen more than usual! And look at that guy over there! What is that, a sock puppet on his hand?_ I nervously sat down next to my friend, Dagur. Weird name, I understand. He's actually called Damien but he could glare daggers at anyone who crossed him, and the name eventually stuck after a paranoia patient kept calling him Dagur at one point. I took pity on Dagur after one day it really got to him and he was close to tears. I took it upon myself to try and make him feel better, and ever since then we've been practically close friends and we relied on each other when either of us were having a bad day in the hospital. He still calls me his brother. Dagur shifted around in his seat and rolled up the sleeves of his red jacket to scratch an itch on his forearms.

"Damien," the orderly said once everyone was comfortable. "Would you like to kick things off?"

"Oh, sure," Dagur complied. He stood up, cleared his throat. "Uh...what should I talk about?" he asked as he ran his fingers through his poorly cut red hair. _Poor guy, they_ really _need to get a new barber in here._

"Why don't you talk about the last time you were upset?" the orderly suggested.

"Oh sure!" Dagur's eyes lit up and he addressed the whole room. "It was the other day actually. My hair had been getting pretty long, lately. People say I talk too much about my hair. This guy can testify to that." He pointed at me and I chuckled.

"I thought I should pay a visit to Seamus to get a haircut," Dagur continued. "And he, you know, did his thing, but he cut one side of my head too far back so it wasn't evened up with the other side of my head and I asked him 'Hey man, what's up with you today?' And he goes 'I don't know, Damien, I guess I just-' 'Just cut it the way you usually do!' 'I'm sorry, I guess I'm just a little...' This went on for quite some time.

"Okay, Henry?" the orderly called out as soon as Dagur was finally done.

"Yup?"

"Why don't you tell us all about your new strategy that's been helping you lately?"

"Uh, yeah, okay...so, hi everyone. My name is Henry. I'm 24, I've been in here for eight months, and so far, I think I've been doing pretty well, given the circumstances. I've been exercising every single day, taking my medication (obviously this was a lie, but they needed it more than I did so I might as well've planted the seed for them), and just been giving myself positive reinforcement. I've got a beautiful wife waiting for me for when I get out of here, and combined with that and my treatment and working out, it's got me in this positive frame of mind. I think when you're in a positive frame of mind, anything is possible. We get so caught up in this state of negativity, and it's like a poison, it's like nothing else. So all we need to do is stick to our own strategies and look after each other to maintain these positive frames of mind, and that'll help us find the excelsior we need to be better human beings."

"Thank you, Henry!" the orderly congratulated me. "I think there's something in that for all of us. Now, Tristan, would you like to speak next?"

* * *

Therapy was over in about an hour and I went back down the corridor towards the cafeteria. I waved at the kindly old lady behind the buffet.

"Morning, Helga!"

"Morning, Henry," Helga replied cheerfully. "Need another garbage bag?"

"Yeah, please." She nodded, produced a roll of garbage bags and tore one off for me. I nodded to her in thanks as I took the bag and went back up to my room to get my mayo jar and running shoes. After I was laced up, I made three holes in the bag with my thumbnail and put my head and arms through the holes. _Okay, time for the morning routine._ I calmly walked out onto the sports field, did some stretches and started exercising. Working out was very therapeutic for me. It relieved me of any anxieties I might've had before hand and the endorphins I'd get at the end would really brighten my day. I did a few laps of the field to get things in motion, then I'd do a few star jumps and pushups. I was drenched in sweat when the sun finally peeked out from behind the clouds. I was doing sit ups and got intermittent glances at the sunshine, but after my 15th rep, the sun was suddenly blocked out by a person. I looked up and strained my eyes to focus on who it was that was standing in front of me. _What?_

"Mum?"

* * *

 **I'll leave it there for now. This is gonna be a good one, I promise you. Hope you enjoyed the prologue!**


	2. Chapter 1

I got up on my feet immediately and pulled my mother into a long hug.

"Gods, what are you doing here?" I asked joyously. "How are you?" I could feel her return the hug as I started shaking with excitement.

"It's so good to see you, Hiccup," Mum choked out. "I'm here to bring you home." I let go and looked her in the eye. She looked really excited. My eyes then darted down and I saw her offering me an empty overnight bag.

"Wait, are you serious? I'm going home today?" She grinned and nodded.

"Yes!"

"Awesome!" I felt like a little kid again. "Wow, uh...okay, so do we need to talk to the warden or something?" Mum shakes her head.

"Already taken care of. You just need to get all your things together and sign out of the hospital."

"Okay, uh, fantastic!" I grabbed the overnight bag lead Mum back into the hospital foyer where a nurse told Mum to wait while an orderly escorted me to my room. I removed the garbage bag from my body and placed it in the bin near my desk before placing what little clothes I had into my overnight bag, along with my unfinished letter to Heather and the Excelsior page. I gladly turned my back on my drab room and made my way back towards the foyer where a doctor was talking intensely to my mother. I remember him. He was really apprehensive around me and Dagur.

"...Technically, you _can_ take him out of here against our recommendation, but you assume a lot of liability in the eyes of the court, and he's _just_ getting used to the routine here-"

"I don't want Henry to get used to the routine here!" Mum interrupted. "Eight months is long enough as it is, and he's ready; I can tell." She noticed me approaching their conversation and gave me a warm smile, which I returned. The doctor then put on a happy face as he acknowledged my arrival.

"Ah, hello, Hiccup-uh, I mean, Henry," the doctor said warily. "So...finally going home today?"

"Yep."

"Wonderful! Now, you remember to..."

He fired off a list of things that I can and can't do when I go home but I didn't listen because I was too confident to trust my judgement and believed I knew everything that was required of me. I just fired off a series of carefully placed m'hm's and yeses. I then looked at the Hospital Discharge Form that already had Mum's signature on it, and added my own. With that, we were right out the door and into Mum's wood panel station wagon.

"Got everything?" Mum asked as I buckled my seatbelt.

"Yup!" Mum started the ignition and we wormed our way through the carpark towards the exit. Suddenly, Dagur emerged from a row of cars, neatly dressed and carrying his own suitcase. _He's been in here as long as I have, surely he can go home too!_

"Hey Mum," I began. "Could we give Damien a ride to North Philly?" I pointed him out and Mum slowed the car down.

"What? I don't understand."

"No, no, don't worry about it, it'll be fine." I waved at Dagur and he returned the gesture gleefully. I beckoned him to get in the car with us. He quickly approached the car and hopped into the back seat.

"Looks like everybody's leaving today!" Dagur mused gleefully. "Hello Mrs Haddock, it's so good to finally meet you! Hiccup told me all about how the Gods made you rich in character and that you're the mighty oak that keeps the family together."

"Well, it's nice to meet you, too Damien," Mum greeted with a hint of trepidation. We all then drove off and made our way towards the Interstate.

"Damien was in the hospital because of crystal meth and alcohol," I brought up.

" _Very_ bad combination," Dagur took over. "I used to work as a GP so I had a lot of access to drugs and I took advantage of it, on top of what Hiccup already mentioned plus a really bad case of ADD and anxiety. That was back when my hair was long-"

"He's always talking about his hair," I chuckled to Mum.

"-Too...I think, yeah when I was younger I tried to grow my hair out because I wanted to change but it wouldn't happen-"

"Hello?" Mum's phone had rung and she took it while she was driving. I didn't pay any mind to it so I kept talking to Dagur.

"Your hair looks great now!" I complimented as I ruffled Dagur's hair with my hand.

"What? Are you sure about that?" Dagur and I stopped talking and looked at my mother, who gave me a look of disappointment.

"I'm very sorry, I'll bring him back right away." Mum put her phone away and glanced at me.

"You lied to me, Henry; Damien's not allowed to leave." Mum turned on the indicator to make a U Turn but I impulsively grabbed the steering wheel.

"Wait, Mum just hold on-"

"HENRY-"

"Let me explain-" Mum fought with my pulling on the steering wheel but we didn't notice a car was about to collide with us head on.

"DON'T TOUCH THE STEERING WHEEL!" I let go, Mum swerved out of the way just in time and pulled over to the side of the road. She started crying.

"Hiccup, this whole thing was a mistake," She sobbed.

"I'm sorry Mum," I apologised. "Are you okay?"

"I am out on a limb for you with the courts right now." Before I could speak, Dagur stepped in.

"It's my fault, Mrs Haddock," Dagur confessed. "He didn't know I wasn't allowed to leave. I'm having a disagreement with the hospital but I'll sort it out soon. Take me back, but please take Hiccup home with you, he is 100% fine, trust me." Mum nodded and we drove back to the hospital in silence. We stayed in the car as Dagur was escorted back inside, then we got back on the road. An hour and a half of silence later, we were back home in Philadelphia.

"How's Dad doing?" I asked, trying to get a conversation started.

"He's bookmaking again."

"What?"

"Yep...he wants to open a cheesesteak place."

"Okay, well that sounds cool but _bookmaking?_ Come on, Dad!" I huffed. He used to do bookmaking a lot when I was still at home but Mum got him off it for a little while. I was a little dejected that he was back in the game. As we drove through the main streets and reached our suburb, I noticed the high school that I used to work at before it all happened. Another idea popped into my head.

"Hey Mum, can we stop at the library on the way home? I wanna read Heather's entire English teaching syllabus." Mum looked at me skeptically. "Mum, it's a good thing! I'm remaking myself." Finally, a smile emerged and we pulled up at the library down the road from our house.

* * *

 **DON'T FORGET TO REVIEW AND FOLLOW!**


End file.
